


You Don't Have to Believe, The Saints Work for Everyone

by BlossomTime



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Hoping for a Baby, M/M, Road Trip
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2016-08-05
Packaged: 2018-07-29 11:28:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7682749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlossomTime/pseuds/BlossomTime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harold and John are hoping for a baby, however it may arrive. Lionel suggests a road trip to a church festival.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Don't Have to Believe, The Saints Work for Everyone

**Author's Note:**

> The title is something I overheard at a party years ago after detailed description of how to bury a St. Joseph statue to make your house sell. Your friends and their saints want you to be happy.

After the recent craziness, Harold and John start to talk about settling down. Maybe another baby like Leila will come into their lives? 

Lionel picks up on Harold's hope for a bigger family after his third or fourth probing question about being a dad. 

Lionel suggests a road trip. 

He and Lee are headed out to visit his cousins, and it'll be the big church festival weekend. There's a blessing for people waiting for a baby, tons of people swear by it. 

A blessing? Harold looks doubtful. 

You can get out of town, stay in a hotel, have a romantic weekend, Lionel says. It can't hurt, right? Bring clothes you don't mind getting wet, he adds, attempting to seem mysterious. 

It's a long drive upstate. 

They have to park blocks away from the church. They meet up with Lionel and Lee on the way to the main festival tent. It's only $10 for lunch. They're roasting whole lambs, there's big steam-table trays of rice pilaf, and some kind of eggplant casserole. There's piles of sticky honeyed pastries. 

They sit at a plastic-covered picnic table and eat. Kids are everywhere, food-smeared, chasing each other between tables. Toddlers are doing their jerky little-kid boogie to the music playing. Lots of chubby babies are being toted around. John's eyes follow each one as they go by. Harold can't help but notice. 

The music is turned down. 

Lee informs the adults that the best part is coming up. 

The parish priest takes the mic for the little PA system. He thanks all of the festival volunteers, all the guys running the rotisserie. He calls up the wreath bearers. They're high-school aged kids, holding flower crowns, a crazy mix of yellow and pink roses wound in ribbons. He asks for the couples who want the blessing for children to stand. People all over the tent stand up. Harold intends to stay seated, but John is up like a shot, so he stands as well. They aren't the only same-sex couple, and no one stares, just like Lionel promised. They each get a crown. John has to almost sit again so the girl with his crown can reach his head. 

While all this is happening, Lee slips away from the table. 

The parish priest closes his eyes and intones a prayer about family and love and how each person here has a heart that longs for the blessing only God can bring. He makes the sign of the cross and an altar server hands him a leafy branch which he dips in a bowl of water. He uses it to sprinkle the standing couples. 

A clamor starts as every kid big enough to walk starts shouting and laughing as they squirt every crown-wearing person with water guns. Some kids have little Dixie cups of water they toss. Babies shake leafy twigs in fat fists. Harold is about to excuse himself from the festivities when he sees that John is laughing as he dodges a group of boys shooting at him. This might be the first time he's seen John look truly happy, his face open and shining, in months. After that, Harold is even willing to crouch down and hold still while a girl barely able to walk pours a paper cup of water, mostly spilled on her stomping journey over to him, on his head. Her mother helps him up again, explaining that she wore the crown two years ago and the very next month she was pregnant. 

Harold, John, and Lionel wander the church grounds the rest of the afternoon while Lee runs ahead. There's ring toss, bean-bag tic-tac-toe, guess the number of jellybeans in a jar. Kids sprint by and squirt at Harold and John, but it's hot out, they dry off pretty quickly. 

As dusk gathers, families with kids start heading home. Adults pass plastic cups of wine. The crowned couples gather at the door to the church. Some are talking about month after month of trying, of disappointment. Others talk about waiting for an adoptable child. 

Two women in black headscarves arrive, tiny and bent, and begin to divide the couples up. John ends up going with the group of mostly women when the woman in charge of that group looks inquiringly at him while patting her belly and he nods. Harold casts worried glances at him as his group is led away into the sanctuary. John gives a little wave and an encouraging smile as his group heads in the opposite direction. 

His concerns about John being social on his own in a group of strangers are quickly overtaken by concern for himself after his group is led to a room with a sunken stone font the size of a hot tub. The water seems to shimmer with its own light and the air around it is cool and almost chokingly humid, heavy with a smell like dark forest soil. It would seem unearthly if it didn't feel like this place had emerged from deep within the Earth, ancient and chthonic. 

Harold isn't sure what this is, but he's pretty sure it isn't Catholic. 

One by one they are led into and out of the font, the water creeping up to their chests. Harold steps down into the font and instantly feels flushed. His skin tingles even though the water is barely warm. He feels dizzy, his joints loose and limbs too long. He stumbles a bit as he steps out. The group has gone silent. Harold finds himself unable to to think of anything but John. 

Harold sees John again outside the church and rushes to him, grabbing his hands, circling his wrists with his fingers, staring up into his face. He feels like he can't touch John enough. He hates to even let go of his hand to get in the car as they leave. John is quiet, dreamy and smiling. He strokes Harold's cheek while he drives, a scent like incense resin clinging to his skin. 

They lean into each other as they walk across the hotel parking lot, arms around each others' waists. By the time they're unlocking their hotel room door they're giggling between kisses, their crowns shedding petals as they laugh. 

They peel off their damp clothes and crawl into bed. John hangs their crowns on the headboard. 

I-I'd always assumed Lionel was Italian, Harold says, sounding baffled, but now I just don't know. 

Quit stalling, Harold, John growls, kissing just above his collarbone, let's make a baby. 


End file.
